The Challengers and the Knights regrouped for a second attempt at completing their eliminator of the 2023 KCL.

One side would be heading to a Semi Final against the Merciful Conquerors. The other was to be going home. In the second T10 of the season, the toss was won by captain Tahir Ahmed of the Challengers who had no hesitation to bat first.

With 60 balls to play with, Tahir Ahmed, who has been in good ball striking form, opened the innings for his side alongside the lethal Safwan Manzoor. Fareed, who has been a wicket taker throughout the tournament within the powerplay was right in the firing line from the very first over, as Tahir and Safwan took him down for a brutal 19 runs and set the tone for the batting side, not the tone that the bowling side would want! Captain Waseem followed up by missing his mark 3 times in his first 3 balls, only to be sent for 3 more sixes by Tahir. It was clearly raining sixes at the LGCC ground. A 26 run 2nd over was then followed by a 21 run 3rd over of the powerplay, Ali Raza now the latest victim of both Safwan and Tahir! The Challangers were 66-0 in their first 3 overs, going at 20 runs per over, with Safwan 34* off 8 deliveries, and Tahir 30* off 10!

Sarfaraz continued with his team’s bowling economy rate of 20+, yet he provided a slight relief with the wicket of Tahir, who finished his assault on 31 off 12 (258 strike rate). With the way things were going for the Knights, Hameed Malik’s 5th over going for 10 only would deserve the MOTM performance if the Knights did go on to win the game, but the momentum gained by the challengers meant that an economical over can easily be followed up by another big towering over of 20 in the next. Such was the case as Safwan once again was trying to get a hold of Sarfaraz, but Sarfaraz finally got the better of him and Safwan once again ended with a brutal contribution of 62 from 20 balls (310 strike rate!).

With the score at 110-2 in 6 overs, the damage was far too much, and the Challangers had four overs of complete free hits with 8 wickets in hand. The torment just wasn’t ending as Muha Ud Deen and Shahid Cheema also wanted a piece of the pie, both adding 20 runs off less than 10 balls each, and the final contribution of 20 off 10 by Salman Jajja meant that the Challangers had racked up a mammoth 169-3 by the end of their 10 overs! A total of 13 sixes and 14 fours in their 60 balls in their innings, the Challengers ended their assault and asked the Knights to go at 17 runs per over from the get-go.

The knights did possess the firepower to make a game of this challenge posed to them, but they would need their big guns to fire now more than ever. The daunting task of 17 per over proved too much for the behemoths Daud and Ali Raza, who both fell early in the first over by Salman Jajja (who’s having a dream tournament both with the bat and ball this season). Hadi and Hafiz sab were trying their hand to go for everything, and batted well with contributions of 21 (15 balls) and 31 (22 balls), but the required run rate was just too much for the Knights to keep up with. All of the knights batsmen had a bit of a go, and Tahir, who had too many runs to play with, was afforded the opportunity to give 7 of his players a bowl. A little cameo of 20* by Safeer of 6 balls was the only innings that had a threatening strike rate of 333, but it was all too late, and the Knights had fallen 68 runs short of their target.

The KCL witnessed an absolute massacre of bowling in the first half of an innings. The Challengers have sent a message of authority to the Conquerors ahead of their semi-final clash on Sunday! Safwan once again took the plaudits for his barbaric performance with the bat. The Knights, who had shown a lot of courage and determination to slip through into the top 4 of the league, will now call it a day for them in this year’s KCL.

Scorecard summary is as follows:

Man of the match: